Despite the fact that James Wright’s book of poems The Branch Will Not Break is considered his foray into the world of free verse, his poem “Beginning” shows remarkable use of form. There is symmetry not only in the construction of line lengths, but also in the content and imagery of each reflective line. The effect is to open more avenues by which the reader can approach the truth which Wright is trying to communicate. It is this remarkably efficient and skillful use of poetic form that demonstrates that Wright is not simply using free verse as a relaxed version of his former structured verses. In fact, by freeing himself from his old shackles, Wright has discovered new forms which can communicate as many, if not more, unique ideas when compared to his former method of poetic creation.

Here, in full, is Wright’s poem “Beginning”:

The moon drops one or two feathers into the field.
The dark wheat listens.
Be still.
Now.
There they are, the moons young, trying
Their wings.
Between trees, a slender woman lifts up the lovely shadow
Of her face, and now she steps into the air, now she is gone
Wholly, into the air.
I stand alone by an elder tree, I do not dare breathe
Or move.
I listen.
The wheat leans back toward its own darkness,
And I lean toward mine.

If one were to plot the “line” scheme (as compared to the rhyme scheme) of the poem, using L for long, M for medium, and S for short line length, the following map would be written:  L M / S S / L S L // L S L / S S / L M. The first two lines are coupled as a perfect repetition of the last two lines. The remaining groups are paired as either perfect reflections or as inversions, due to symmetry of line length. With this scheme in mind, one can begin to unpack the poem, first as a normal examination of all lines interacting linearly, then as an analysis of image and metaphor when comparing pairs of lines based on the symmetry map.

The moon is depicted as a bird or winged creature, as it drops “one or two feathers into the field.” There is a sense of magic created by this opening. A logical mind knows that the moon is of course in outer space, millions of miles away from Earth. Yet in the universe of this poem, the moon is as close and fragile as a molting bird in the night sky. To add to this magic, the dark wheat of the field is listening to the silence of the night. All that we know is not true, and what we thought was inanimate is sentient. With such a radical view of the world at hand, it is no question that the only appropriate response, as echoed by the narrator, is to “Be still. / Now.” In this seemingly ordinary night, there is something extraordinary and powerful about to take place. The reader next learns that “they…the moon’s young, [are] trying / Their wings.” What form the moon’s young actually take is unclear. Most likely, as the moon is a gigantic, overwhelming glowing white sphere dominant in the sky, the fledgling young must be the stars, points of light which appear to be imitations of the moon. Great distance is made small in Wright’s universe. A sun ten-thousand times the size of Earth, let alone the moon, is here depicted as being the offspring of our orbiting heavenly body.

Click here to read “Symmetry and Form in Free Verse, as Seen in Wright’s Beginning – Part 2”

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1. Symmetry and Form in Free Verse, as Seen in Wright’s Beginning – Part 2